Hillewaere Group is acquiring the two Antwerp insurance offices ICS Insurances from Schilde and DOM nv from Kontich. Thanks to these acquisitions, we are increasing our footprint in Flanders and Brussels, expanding our expertise and bringing the number of locations to 20. "By deploying technology, we can live up to the proximity and personal contact with our customers in our services better than ever and offer them a contemporary customer experience. Acquisitions make it possible to deploy that technology in a scalable way," points out Roel Druyts, our CEO. With Hillewaere Group we will gain 25 employees and increase our turnover by 3 million euro to 27 million euro. The directors of the acquired offices will become partners in the Hillewaere Group, thus also contributing to our growth story.
We are consolidating the market with Hillewaere Group, active in real estate, insurances and mortgages, under the impetus of our founder Roel Druyts. Thanks to the financial input of Five Arrows Principal, an investment arm of Rothschild & Co, we already acquired seven insurance offices in March last year. These are strategically located in Flanders and Brussels: Ghent-based De Clercq-Verstichel Insurance Brokers, Antwerp-based Lesseliers & Co, Brussels-based Fav&Co, Kortrijk-based Group NBA Insurance Brokers, Kapellen-based T&T Quirynen, Hasselt-based Nelissen Insurance and Genk-based Duwel & Partners.
With the first acquisition round, we aimed for a geographical spread to make our national ambition clear. With the acquisition of ICS Insurances and DOM nv, we are taking the next step in the consolidation process and looking at which partners can further strengthen us in terms of content.
"With ICS Insurances, with Nick (38) and Ken Heuring (42), we are once again bringing young business managers on board. The brothers literally grew up within the insurance world thanks to father Frank, founder of the company and also head of the insurance department at the Karel De Grote college for many years. This shows that we are building a dynamic company with a long-term vision." Roel Druyts, CEO Hillewaere Group
Among other things, ICS Insurances caters for a high-end private market, SMEs and independent entrepreneurs in Schilde and the surrounding area, where we already have a strong presence ourselves. Together with the expertise of Lesseliers & Co and T&T Quirynen, based in the immediate vicinity, we thus form a strong player with a large market share in the North Antwerp insurance market.
"The IT project that Hillewaere is rolling out within the different entities of the group has completely convinced us. We have not yet seen such an innovative vision from any other party in the market. We are convinced that this will give the group a long-term strategic advantage over the competition. A development of this magnitude cannot possibly be achieved by an individual broker on its own." Ken Heuring of ICS Insurances
We deliberately brought in Kontich-based DOM nv because of their knowledge and expertise in cyber risk insurance and the whole spectrum of tax and non-tax pension accrual for the self-employed and Employee Benefits. DOM nv has built up a solid reputation in this field in recent years, both in terms of knowledge and in the way clients are followed up. Managing director Maarten Dom is also the creator of the software platform e-GOR, which has been awarded several times as 'Leader in Life' and is today used by numerous brokers to guide clients in pension and asset accumulation. Recently, the company behind e-GOR was sold to Portima, market leader in CRM software for insurance brokers.
"Maarten and his sister Katrien are true specialists in their fields. By setting up a central 'Leven' team, we can further focus on sharing knowledge within the Hillewaere network and use expertise in depth. And this in turn benefits our clients. Moreover, Maarten - as creator of a successful software platform - also brings a lot of knowledge to the technological path we are taking." - Roel Druyts, CEO Hillewaere Group
"The insurance market is becoming increasingly complex and it is impossible to gather all competences in a smaller insurance office. With Hillewaere, we are very consciously choosing both scale and innovation. With DOM, we have also always focused on IT as the key to offering our clients added value. Thanks to Hillewaere's financial strength as a partner, we can shift up a few gears with this." - Maarten Dom of DOM NV
The aim is to further consolidate the fragmented landscape of insurance and real estate brokerage by 2023. Today, we have a total of 230 employees and a turnover of 27 million euros. Our ambition is to increase turnover by another 20 to 25 million euros in 2023, which means another doubling of the size.
"We note that there is a lot of interest in our unique partner model whereby the directors of the acquired offices become partners within the Hillewaere Group. This offers advantages: on the one hand, enterprising insurance brokers can benefit from the advantages of a large group; on the other, they can remain entrepreneurial and manage their teams themselves. So there is still plenty of room for growth." - Roel Druyts, CEO Hillewaere Group
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